O’CONNELL’S CBS

I first heard of TEFL when I saw a sheet about it on the notice board. I was interested in teaching English to the foreign students in O’Connell’s Secondary School and so I decided to sign-up to get an experience and to try and help others. I still didn’t really know what I would be doing. We were told that every Friday we would be going down to teach students our own age from O’Connell’s School who had very little English. Then we all took a weekend course on Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). This was something I had never experienced before. We were at the course all day Saturday and all day Sunday. When it ended we were all absolutely exhausted but we knew it was for a good cause so we put our exhaustion behind us.

As a group, and individually, I feel that the twelve of us gained a huge amount from this experience and learnt a lot about ourselves. Helping the boys was a simply amazing experience. To know that we were influencing these students’ lives was great. From then on we went down to O’Connell’s to teach English every Friday. Half of the group of twelve went during second and third period, and the other half of the group went for the last two periods. On the first Friday, we all waited anxiously in the foyer to be escorted down to O’Connell’s by a Fifth Year student who did TEFL last year. We were all nervous but excited and curious to see what we would be doing. We received a warm welcome at O’Connell’s from the students we would be teaching, the teachers and the Principal. The teachers seemed relieved that they had some help to try and teach these boys a language they had never spoken before. We could already see the difference that we were making. There were about fifteen students in the class. All the students were foreign. All the students spoke very little English. We were told that some of the boys are over in Ireland without a parent or guardian. We were all shocked and appalled to hear this. We couldn’t believe that some of these boys, who were our age and younger, were in the country without a guardian. Then we were told that at this period the boys would now read books. We would choose a student and begin to go through the book with them. They would read the book and we would explain to them, any way we could, what the words meant. It was a strange and funny experience at times, trying to act out words in the book that these boys simply didn’t comprehend. Then we would usually ask them to see if they remembered the words that we had taught them.

The fact that we were making such a difference to these boys’ lives was something special. When we came back every Friday and saw the progress that the boys had made, we felt a wonderful sense of pride, achievement and fulfillment. I don’t think that any of us had ever made such a big difference in someone’s life. We were making their lives better and, hopefully, making Ireland a better place for them to live in. We were all aware that the more English that these boys learn now, the better chance they have of getting a job in Ireland in later life.

Another rewarding thing about teaching was the relationships that we all developed with the students. As we were teaching the same student every week we got to know them. They were all friendly, kind and wanted to learn. We could all see how much these boys wanted to learn and so we wanted to teach them as best we could. We all enjoyed the boys’ company and we had a few laughs with them. In the first few weeks we were all a bit shy. When we were more comfortable with them we learnt that the more effort you put in to teach them, the more you got out of it. If you really make the effort to get to know the boys and talk to them, they really do respond to you and thank you for what you are doing. Many of the students even taught us a little about their language and culture which was a good laugh.

When we were nominated for the Edmund Rice Awards we were all really pleased, eager and enthusiastic to go to the Awards ceremony. Although the best feeling was knowing that we had helped these people, it was still nice to be acknowledged for all the hard work we had done. The certificates we all received are a symbol of the good work we did. We would never have been given this amazing opportunity if it weren’t for Ms. Dolan. She made the entire process possible and we are all very grateful for the dedication that she has put into the cause. Overall the experience is one that I’m sure none of us will ever forget. We influenced the lives of others. We can now be proud of what we have done. TEFL is what being in Belvedere is all about.

by Peter Kane SA